Mundane Wish: Difference between revisions

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Bob, after a moment's thought, wishes for a bag of potato chips.

'''Mundane Wish''' is the trope when a character, given the opportunity to choose any reward without restraint, intentionally picks something simple and commonplace. While this may be done simply for comedy, it is often used to establish the practical or humble nature of the wisher—such as if Bob simply doesn't ''want'' or ''need'' anything grand, or doesn't even think to ask for such. Alternately, Bob may be [[Genre Savvy]] enough to wish for something simple in order to counteract [[Be Careful What You Wish For|the backfire potential]] of a [[Literal Genie|literal]] or [[~~Jerkass~~ Genie]].

'''Mundane Wish''' is the trope when a character, given the opportunity to choose any reward without restraint, intentionally picks something simple and commonplace. While this may be done simply for comedy, it is often used to establish the practical or humble nature of the wisher—such as if Bob simply doesn't ''want'' or ''need'' anything grand, or doesn't even think to ask for such. Alternately, Bob may be [[Genre Savvy]] enough to wish for something simple in order to counteract [[Be Careful What You Wish For|the backfire potential]] of a [[Literal Genie|literal]] or [[Jackass Genie]].

Typically appears in stories featuring magic ([[Clarke's Third Law|or a similar substitute]]), but can also appear in non-magical situations, like an Emperor offering an open-ended reward to a hero or a conversation between friends.